Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Wizards and Lewis Structures

Hey everyone, today's blog is really short, but clear and to the fact.

Nothing has really been going on as far as school. Chemistry is easy again (after a chapter on Enthalpy and Thermochemistry my mind is fried).
This brings me to my first point.
I tutor people somewhat under the radar, we meet privately and I try to help them out, so I was thinking that I could start another Blog just to help people out with some science/math type of lessons. kind of like informative blogs or maybe even videos at some point. I feel like many people could use some help in those subjects.
So my question is really, what do you guys think? Would a blog really help people out?

As far as my band goes we haven't met recently. I've been looking for some bass gear. I'm broke and need some money to get some performance grade gear (a bass cad/head, a guitar amp/pedals). If anyone is up in North/central jersey looking for some business let me know.

Anyway, that brings me to the
MUSIC VIDEO OF THE DAY!





I thought I'd talk about Paramore a bit.
They're one of my favorite bands and they have really influenced my style as far as music writing/playing.
Hayley Williams is one of the most talented (and beautiful) frontgirls of our generation and I'm glad that I've been following this band since the beginning.
So I though I'd give this video some play time seeing as many people probably only them from their newest release Brand New Eyes.
So check out their beginning and see how much they've changed but also how true they've stayed to their sound.
This also brings me to my next question.
How many of you guys would be interested in a music blog?
I feel like there are a lot of bands out there that really should get more credit than they deserve and some other groups and performers that really need some well thought out, constructive criticism.

Anyway, that's really all I have for today guys!

I hope you all have a great thanksgiving!
till Next Time
~Krow~

So tell me, what's the weirdest thing you've found on the sidewalk?

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Dragons + Zombies = Hell Yes!

It's been a while since I last updated (blame school and music)
Busy busy busy wih many aspects of my life. I recently started playing bass in a new project that i was invited to by my friend Miguel. He's a music major at Montclair University. This kid is a ridiculous guitar player.
Here's a link to one of the songs, give it a listen and let me know what you think!



My bass parts are a little more complicated than this but it hasn't been recorded yet (this video was made before I joined the band)

So I've been working with this band lately and hopefully we'll start playing some shows in the North/Central Jersey area soon.

NEXT TOPIC!

How many of you motherfuckers play on Steam!

Yeah?!
ME TOO!!!

I recently took opportunity of the Halloween sales and managed to get myself a copy of both Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2!
I'm still getting used to playing it on PC (I played it on XBox before this), but I'm too in love with Borderlands so the controls are all strange to me haha

So add me on Steam, look up Krow333 and send me a request if you ever wanna play!


But the real thing I wanna talk about today is this game that I hope many of you know about. It's also on Steam.
It's called Killing Floor.


Warning:
This game contains lots of bloor, gore, blood, gore, decapitations, blood, gore, and rage.
This game is not recommended for haters.


The game itself is a survival. You and teammates are supposed to try and survive waves upon waves of "Zeds" (The game is from overseas, so yeah). The game is set in various parts of England.
The story isn't a major part of the game, all it does is really give you a background as to why you are where you are, who you are, and why all this is going on.
But once you start playing it's hard to put it down.
There are a few different types of enemies, each with its own unique ability; some grab you, others slice you, some are invisible, and others just literally fuck your shit up beyond belief.

But what i like most about this game is the difficulty.
There are four difficulty modes.
Beginner, Normal, Hard, and Suicidal.
Each enemy type has a bounty value that you cash in as you kill things. As the difficulty increases, you get a lot less money, but there are many more enemies (do the math, you get fucked twice as hard for half the money).
Why does this matter?
Well the weapons can be VERY expensive.

It's also very a-la-Team Fortress because of the introduction of classes. each classes has a set of perks, or stat bonuses. Some get less recoil from specific weapons, others heal more. Each class can level up for increased perks. To level up you simply have to complete a certain criteria, like getting a certain number of headshots or killing a number of certain kind of enemy.
It's a really simple game and it gets really addicting. it's not expensive at all and it can really be worth the time.

I suggest getting it.

It can get a little old after a while, but just kick up the difficulty and play with some friends.
There's also plenty of modded servers to up the challenge even more.
I give it a 6.5/10 (Which is actually pretty good considering I don't see any game going past an 8.5 any time soon)


So that's all for now, hopefully I'll be updating more frequently now that I'm all good and settled into college life.

So tell me, what's the best thing you can cook?

Friday, October 1, 2010

Calc Buddies Forever :D

Hey there everyone!
I didn't post anything yesterday because my friend was sick and I wanted to go and hang out with her and make sure she was ok.
So I guess sometimes in the late afternoon she ate something that didn't really sit well with her and I guess she got some sort of food poisoning becase she kept throwing up and she was really upset so i ended up going to her room and keeping her company till about 4am when we both passed out.
Then I had to wake up at 8 for my 9am class in which I had a test that I would have studied for had she not been sick. But it was all good. Took the test, got some breakfast, went to history and almost fell asleep (but that happens on a regular basis so yeah haha). After that I had a test in my music class on like basic music terms so it was simple. That's about my day so far because I passed out when I got to my room and didn't wake up till about 8pm (totally took a 6 hour nap).
Anyway that was my day, but hey friends are there for each other right?

So tell me guys, what's the most you've ever done for a friend in need?

But anyway, on to the
Song of the day!

Today we have this song that's been in my head for the past few weeks.
If you appreciate awesome breakdowns you'll understand why
I've been having a hard time finding more by this band but if anyone finds anything then let me know in the comments below :D



It's a pretty cool video (The girl is pretty hot too)
Check out their MySpace and support :D


Anyway, that's really all for today, I'm still pretty tired so I might just take it easy and go back to sleep!


See ya next time :D
Krow

So tell me,
how many of you guys have tattoos?

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

And I Have Discovered

I guess you could say this is part two of today's blog.
In case you missed this first part you could go back to my blog page and find it or you can just click this here link and you'll be on your way!

Anyway,
I was talking about songs that have made an impact on our lives and I posted the video for One Year, Six Months by Yellowcard.

I feel like even though we may not notice it all the time we definitely could sit down and write a soundtrack for our lives. Knowing what songs to put with what memories and situations.

But that was last pot, this one's all about Chemistry!

I had my Chemistry I class today as well as a lab, and I think I'm the only freshman in that class!
It's really weird finishing my tests and quizzes first and leaving while everyone is still working. Also getting the highest grades in the class (no one likes being that curve breaker).
Speaking of curves! Guess who the ladies go to for help in their lab!
The instructor!
But right after they go to me because they can't understand his thick Indian accent. For some reason all my Chem teachers have had completely ridiculous accents. it's really quite disappointing, I mean, chemistry is confusing enough as it is!

On a completely unrelated note!
NEW ROB ZOMBIE ALBUM COMING OUT! It's been a while since the last one because of his directing for the Halloween movies.

If anyone needs basic Chem help shoot me a message and we'll figure out your shit!

But this is my week as it stands for now, Tomorrow I get to wake up late again! Then I have a Physical Therapy Club meeting so that should be fun! Then I don't have class till 6 but that's ok, it's Chem. After that I have my English class which I still totally have to do my work for...
But Friday is the thing I'm looking forward to the most! Other than having 2 tests in 2 out of my 3 Friday classes I'll have a lot of the afternoon free and I can probably go play guitar outside for a while and make some more new friends :D

Speaking of which, I have a youtube Channel but the music isn't that great >_>
I'll leave the link here anyway so check it out if you like noise <_< (Besides, some views wouldn't hurt)

Totally my youtube channel!

But anyway, that's really all for today, I'm gonna go stab the next person who tries to take the dryer from me.

So tell me guys,
What is your favorite skill to show off?

Till tomorrow,
Krow

I Have Seen The Others

Hey there bloggers!
First things first, thanks for being so supportive and checking out the blog and commenting and stuff. really, it's awesome.
But anyway let's begin.
Today started for me at 8am because of my 9am class >_> Needless to say I was very tired after a late night of Borderlands. For those of you with Borderlands for PC my tag is Ikaarus and I'm on pretty frequently so if you wanna play hit me up ;P
So after that I went to get breakfast with two of my friends, and I'm very disappointed withe the food staff! The breakfast burrito is clearly on the menu but they didn't have it! And the lady at the grill was mean too...
So I got some other food and chilled. Then I had another class, history, which is pretty boring but w/e.

This is where the fun starts. Last week I met these two guys Phil and Russell. Phil was playing Weezer on his Ukulele so I went over to check it out, we played some tunes to sing along to and we got each other's contacts and stuff and today we met up and jammed. It was pretty awesome!
We played some Weezer, some Hendrix, Dave Matthews, Green Day, even fucking Dream Theater. It was awesome. People came up and this guy Jake showed up out of nowhere and did some amazing shit on Phil's guitar. Fingertapping and shit.
But this song has been stuck in my head so I figured I'll post it here.
I guess you could say it's my daily music video :D

So here it is, One Year, Six Months by Yellowcard



I love this song. I've got some history with it as I played it for my ex exactly 1 year and 6 months after we broke up. I was still head over heels for her.
Shit didn't work out but w/e, at least I learned an awesome song :D

Right now I have to go to my next class but I'll make a follow up post later with some other stuff!

So tell me readers, what song has the most sentimental value to you?
Post some comments, I'd love to know :D

Anyway, see ya in a bit.
Krow

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Thirty and Seven and Thirteen

For all you metal lovers I was recently listening to this song and I realized how amazing it is. It has elements from so many different types of metal and it does such a great job at combining them. One of my favorite songs by August Burns Red.
Thought I'd share it. If you're not into the heavy screaming stuff then give a go anyway :D




On to other news.
I woke up at noon today and went to class.
Shit was a review of basic music terms.
Has it ever happened to any of you guys when you feel like you should be able to just take a test and place out of the class.
That would make college so much better >_>
Or just school in general really.

Anyway, I finally hooked up my PS3 here in my dorm and I was playing FFXIII.
I have very mixed feelings about this game actually. I love the Final Fantasy series, has been one of my favorites ever since I started playing video games in my childhood, but I feel like the producers have been trying too much to innovate that it has changed (read:lowered) some of the standars for the elements that we loved about the series.
The story is alright, but when you put it all on a line, the game is really very short. I remember the days when it took about 40 hours to go through a story and now it takes about half of that. I mean, by the end of this game I felt like I was just watching the story whereas in past games I felt a more deep connection and even got somewhat emotionally attached to the characters


yuuuuup...


I like how they tried to make the game a lot more strategic and fast paced with the new ATB system, but honestly I felt like limiting what you can do with the characters only made it easier. Even FFXII had a pretty awesome system of gambits, and I feel like that combined with an ATB would be what I've been waiting for since i started playing.
This battle system and layout really was something I enjoyed about the previous title



The sidequests weren't too bad though. Hunting monsters has been a part of FF for the past couple of games, and although the mission system here keeps that tradition, a lot of the battles were really simple and didn't really give you the feeling that you were hunting some really powerful monster. It just took you waaaaaaay across maps. As the missions get higher they get harder but I felt like i wasted time for the first 40 or so missions. The rewards aren't that great and honestly it was very boring.

One thign that I liked though was the weapon upgrade system. I remember in FFVIII you got to search around for parts and upgrade your weapons (and even something like that in FFX) but this one really took it to a new level. There are so many materials and every weapon is unique so what may work for one isn't necessarily the best for another.

Something else I liked was the fact that they introduced a class system again. We've been without one for a while (unless you got the international XII, in which case you had the Zodiac Class system). This works fine because then you really have to figure out how you wanna play and every character is unique so they each have something of their own to contribute to the party.

The graphics are amazing. That's about it.

Overall i'd give this game a 6/10 because as great as it looks and sounds it's really not what is expected from a Final Fantasy game. the story was ok, the battle system could have been better, I feel like I don't know the characters, and what the fuck is with the Gestalt mode?

This game could have been better, much better, but hopefully the other XIIIs will the great (someone let me know) and I also hope that Square learns from it's mistake and stops trying so hard to be innovative. We like the FF games for a reason and call me a traditionalist but there are things that seriously didn't need to be changed.

So let me ask you, what game has let you down the most?

That's all for today.
As you can tell this blog is about everything and anything that crosses my mind so check back for more new stuff everyday!

Until next time,
Krow

Monday, September 27, 2010

Rainy Monday

It's Monday and this week is already getting to me >_>

I only had two classes today and I'm done with that but now I have mass amounts of work to do.
I just want to thank everyone who's been following me and supporting this young blog which I hope will become something fun not just for me to write but also to read :P

Today i thought I'd share another song that I've been addicted to for the past few months



This song really makes me happy about Dream Theater, and to be honest i think it's one of my favorites.

It's sad to think about Dream Theater without Mike Portnoy but hopefully things will work out once everyone's had a good break from each other. I wish the remainder of Dream Theater good luck with the new album thought, i'm excited to see what DT is going to sounds like without Portnoy.
As well as for Portnoy I hope he keeps on having fun with all his side projects as well as helping out A7X.

Avenged Sevenfold's newest album Nightmare was, in my opinion, nothing more than a tribute to the Rev. I mean, people give it a lot of shit about this album (fans and haters alike), but I feel that you have to remember that they are still people who just lost a brother, not just a drummer.
And I'm sure that Jimmy, although talented, was not the best and that there are plenty of people who could replace him on drums, but no one could ever replace him as family or friend.
So I think that Nightmare really did what the band intended it to do, which was mourn the loss of their brother.
If you listen to the entire album you can definitely hear the sadness and mourning of the band as well as The Rev's influence (he did write a lot of the album before passing).

I'm excited to see what the future holds in store for these two bands, two of my favorites actually.

But for now I have to go do my homework >_>

R.I.P
Jimmy Sullivan!
"A spoon full of Jimmy Makes the whole world go down...."

Saturday, September 25, 2010

NJSO at MAYO Theater at MoTOWN

So I just got back from a concert in my hometown of Morristown here in jersey. The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra played Beethoven's 9th.
The introduction piece to the show was Canticle of Freedom, and to be honest it was kind of a terrifying piece. The low bass drums and low tuned timpani gave the whole piece a sort of tribal ritualistic feel. But once the Westminster Choir entered with the lyrics everything turned a lot happier and powerful.
The rest of the program was Beethoven's 9th with readings in between from famous speeches narrated by Avery Brooks. It was some intense stuff.

The entire piece was great and the choir was amazing (my favorite past was tenor Bryan Griffin. Oh. My. God)

The ending "Ode To Joy" was spectacular. I've never seen the entire piece performed in full or with a full choir/orchestra so it was a pretty nice thing to see.

I can't wait to see another orchestra show!
Support your local orchestras!

Friday, September 24, 2010

I thought I'd do something ice in order to inaugurate this blog.
I hope you all like Blink 182 
This song is very special to me for many different reasons that yeah





WOOOOO

Headfirst for Halos

Alright, now that I'm done with what I was doing before I thought I'd give myself somewhat of an introduction.

As some of you probably already figured out my Name is Felipe V, call me Felipe, Flip, Krow, loser, whatever, I don't care :D
I'm 18 years old born in Colombia but raised here in the US.
I'm bilingual in both English and Spanish and I'm trained in Classical Latin.
I love to play guitar! Been doing it for about 5 years now and I've loved every note!
I try to play piano but ever since college started I've been very out of practice :(
I love to draw and I'm currently working with my friend John Mielke on a super rad comic (but shhhh, it's a secret!).

I like to draw portraits! So if you ever feel like dropping me a line or a comment with a request I could probably hook you up ;D
they're graphite/charcoal/chalk mostly but they come out pretty nice!

Check out my DeviantArt page up on the links of if you're too lazy just go to
MY DA PAGE OH YEAH CLICK HERE!

Be my friend and follow (i'm nice, I promise)
Drop by and read some o what I gotta say or just look at pictures or whatever.

That's really it

Oh!
and for those of you with PSN my tag is Ikaarus so add me and we could play some MW2 (when I get it soon)

That's all for now!

See ya later!
~Krow~

Why am I here?

I'm Felipe.
That's about it

I'll try to post interesting things?

See ya soon :D